Thursday, 11 April 2013

Margaret of France

I have been carrying out some research on Grey Friars in
London recently and was reminded of one of England’s least well known queens, Margaret
of France, who was buried there. It was
a sad end for a woman who was a competent, if largely overlooked, queen that
saw her tomb memorial taken apart and sold in the late 1540s following the
dissolution of the monastery.

Margaret of France (c.1279-1318) is little remembered today
and was, even in her own time, over-shadowed by her more famous predecessor as
Edward I’s wife, Eleanor of Castile, and by her successor as queen, the
notorious Isabella of France. She played
an important role in keeping the royal family together and her life appears, in
the main, to have been a happy one. She was the youngest child of Philip III of France and his wife, Marie of Brabant and
was born around 1279. In 1285 her father died and she was raised under the
guardianship of her brother, Philip IV.

In 1296 Philip
invaded Gascony and took control of the duchy. Edward I was already committed
to his war in Scotland and was unable to defend both areas. He had already made
one marriage in order to safeguard Gascony from foreign attack and he was
therefore eager, in 1298 to adopt the pope’s suggestion of a marriage between
himself and a sister of Philip IV, and for his eldest surviving son, Edward, to
marry Philip’s daughter, Isabella. At first, it was suggested that Edward marry
Margaret’s elder sister, Blanche, who was a renowned beauty. At some stage in
the negotiations, Margaret’s name was substituted for Blanche’s. Margaret came
from a good-looking family and her brother was always known as ‘Philip the
Fair’. While Margaret was always rather overshadowed by her brother and elder
sister, she was an attractive woman in her own right and, according to the
Chronicler, Peter Langcroft ‘the Lady Margaret, in whose least finger there is
more goodness and beauty, whoever looks at her, than in the fair Idione whom
Adamas loved’. Edward had no reason to feel short-changed by the substitution
of Margaret for the fair Blanche.

Margaret arrived at Dover in September 1299 and was taken
straight to Canterbury where she and the sixty year old Edward were married on
8 September. No record of the couple’s first meeting survives but Edward was
apparently delighted with his young bride and the couple, against expectations,
became close. Margaret was presented to the people as a peacemaker for her role
in ending the conflict in Gascony and this made her popular, with the
contemporary Song of the Scottish Wars commenting
of the marriage that ‘next the king returns, that he may marry Queen Margaret,
the flower of the French; through her the kingdoms receive a more complete
peace. Anger begets slaughter, concord nourishes love - when love buds between
great princes, it drives away bitter sobs from their subjects’. She quickly
fell pregnant following her marriage and both she and Edward found they missed
each other, in spite of the brief time that they had been together. According
to the chronicler, Peter Langcroft, soon after Easter 1300:

‘Queen Margaret, by
command of her lord the king, proceeds towards the North; she was advanced in
pregnancy; by will of God Almighty at Brotherton on the wharf she is safely
delivered of a son who is named Thomas at his baptism. King Edward receives
information of it, prepares quickly to visit the lady, like a falcon before the
wind. After her purification made solemnly the king resumes his road towards
Scotland; the queen with her son waits at Cawood, on the River Ouse, much at
her ease’.

Given that Margaret had only arrived in England in September
1299 and her first son was born on 1 June 1300, coupled with the fact that
Brotherton contained no royal residence, it is clear that Margaret’s first
child was premature. In spite of this, her son was healthy and as soon as she
was well enough to travel she moved to Cawood which had been prepared for her
lying-in. Margaret’s other deliveries went more smoothly and she bore Edward
two further children: Edmund at Woodstock in August 1301 and Eleanor at
Winchester in May 1306. It is a testament to Margaret’s good nature that her
only daughter was named after her predecessor as Edward’s wife.

Like Eleanor of
Castile, Margaret spent most of her time travelling with Edward and she was a
distant mother to her children. She involved herself in their upbringing as
much as possible, personally selecting Thomas’s wet nurse, for example. She gave
her two sons the gift of an iron birdcage and grieved for her daughter when she
died young. Edward was also interested in his children and a letter survives
from him to the steward of his sons’ household, telling him to ensure that they
attended mass at Canterbury Cathedral and asking for a report on their conduct during
the service. Edward asked for them to be brought to St Radegunds in September
1302 so that he could visit them. In a
further letter to the children’s household after the birth of Margaret’s
daughter, Edward asked for details of what the baby was like. It is obvious
that both Margaret and Edward attempted to stay involved in their children’s
lives and Edward treated the children of his second family with more indulgence
than the strict upbringings imposed on his first.

Margaret made an effort to be on good terms with Edward’s
children from his first marriage. She had considerable contact with the future
Edward II and, even though she was only a few years older than him, she filled
the role of a mother to him. In 1305, the young Edward and some other youths
invaded the estates of the Bishop of Chester, pulling down fences and allowing
his game to escape. Edward I was furious with his son and sent him to Windsor
where he spent six months in disgrace. He was only released through a
reconciliation engineered by Margaret when she convinced her husband not to
punish his son further.

Edward I was faithful to both his queens and he and Margaret
enjoyed a loving relationship. There is evidence that he was anxious about
Margaret’s health and happiness, as a series of surviving letters show.
Margaret was diagnosed with measles in 1305 and Edward was very concerned for
her health, cancelling arrangements that had been made for her to travel to see
him. In a letter to her physician, Edward told him not to let her travel until
she was fully recovered or he would suffer for it.

Margaret was an exemplary queen and her only recorded vice
was a failure to control her finances. She was very extravagant and by 1302
Edward had had to give her £4000 out of wardships and marriages so that she
could pay her debts. In 1305 her lands were increased by £500 a year, again in order to
service her debts. Margaret spent the money on luxuries: in 1302 she owed £1000
to an Italian merchant for fine clothes and other goods. She was left richly
provided for in Edward’s Will but died heavily in debt.

In spite of these
debts, Margaret was a kind-hearted woman and she interceded with Edward on a
number of occasions on behalf of people who petitioned her. She saved the life
of a Godfrey de Cogners, who had unwisely fashioned the crown with which Robert
the Bruce was crowned in Scotland. Margaret was kind-hearted even to her
opponents. In 1303 or 1304 she issued a writ against two men for trespass in
her park in Camel in Somerset. Since both of the accuseds were in Scotland when
the writ was issued, she agreed to postpone her action against them so that
they would not be prejudiced by their absence. In a letter to Edward’s
chancellor, Margaret wrote:

‘Because we have
granted, at the request of our dear cousin, Sir Aymer de Valence, that the
exigence [writ] which is running upon
Sir Alexander Cheverel and Roger Parker
(who remain in the service of our said lord the king in Scotland) in the
county of Somerset by the order delivered to the sheriff of the same place by
our said cousin, Sir Hugh le Despenser and Sir Henry le Spigurnel, justices
assigned to hear and determine the trespass which was committed against our
said lord the king and against ourself in our park of Camel, should be
adjourned until the feast of St Hilary next coming, we command and request you
that you hereupon make the said Sir Alexander and Roger have our lord the
king’s writ to the aforesaid sheriff in due manner, so that they in the
meantime do not incur damage or danger by it for this reason’.

Margaret was not with Edward when he died on 7 July 1307 at
Burgh-by-Sands on his way to yet another campaign in Scotland. Edward’s death
was unexpected and Margaret grieved for him deeply, never contemplating a
second marriage, in spite of being only in her late twenties at the time. She
did not, however, retire from public life and, on 22 January 1308 sailed to
Boulogne with her stepson, Edward II, for his marriage to her niece, Isabella
of France.

The royal party returned to England soon after the wedding
for Edward and Isabella’s coronation. Margaret’s brothers, the Counts of Valois
and Evreux publicly voiced their disapproval at the prominence given to Edward
II’s favourite, Piers Gaveston, at the ceremony and it is likely that Margaret
also disapproved. Certainly, she retired from court soon after the coronation.
She may also have voiced her concerns to her brother, Philip IV, and, in May
1308, it was reported that both Philip and Margaret had sent £40,000 to the
Earls of Lincoln and Pembroke to finance their campaign to oust Gaveston from
power. She had reason to dislike Gaeston as, at Easter 1308, Edward took
Berkhamstead Castle from her and bestowed it on his favourite. Margaret played
only a small role in the campaign against Gaveston and it was the only foray
into politics that she ever made.

Margaret’s last public appearance was as a witness to the
birth of the future Edward III at
Windsor in 1312. She joined her niece, Isabella, two months before the birth
and stayed until after the christening before returning to her own estates. She
lived quietly for the rest of her widowhood and died at Marlborough Castle in
February 1318 of some unspecified illness. At her request, she was buried at
Grey Friars church in London, next to the altar in the choir that she had
built. In spite of her brief life and even briefer marriage, Margaret of France
appears to have been happy and she enjoyed a happier marriage than her niece
and successor as queen, Isabella of France.

Unlike her predecessor as queen, Eleanor of Castile, and
successor, Isabella of France, there is unlikely to ever be a biography of
Margaret of France. She made very little political impact but, in spite of odds
that were stacked against her, she was happy. By choosing Grey Friars as her
burial place she also set a precedent and it became the fashionable place for the London aristocracy and gentry to be
buried. You can read more about Margaret, who appears incredibly human in the
surviving sources, in my book, England’s
Queens: The Biography.

About Me

I'm an author and historian, specialising on the queens of England and the Tudor period. I love all things historical, training as an archaeologist before switching to historical research. I am currently carrying out academic research at King's College, London. I have written several books, including biographies of four of Henry VIII's wives, Margaret Beaufort, Bessie Blount and The Boleyn Women